OTEKO, a Russian port infrastructure provider, will reject a proposed offer from logistics group Delo for its Taman transshipment terminal in the Black Sea, the company told Reuters on Friday.
Many assets in Russia have changed hands in the last two years and scores of foreign companies left Russia following its invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.
An asset transfer is also taking place domestically as state-owned and private companies take advantage of the changing business landscape.
Transport and logistics group Delo plans to make an offer to buy OTEKO’s coal transshipment terminal to lower high coal prices and resume the terminal’s operations, Delo Group founder Sergei Shishkarev told Kommersant in an interview published on Thursday.
“OTEKO terminals are not for sale,” OTEKO told Reuters. “We have not received any offers, but even if we do, we do not plan to hold such negotiations.”
Coal shipments from the terminal have stalled. OTEKO has blamed the delays on insufficient railroad capacity, while Shishkarev says OTEKO sets prices too high.
OTEKO’s Taman terminal in the Black Sea has annual capacity of 70 million metric tons, mostly for coal. OTEKO is owned by Michel Litvak, a Belgian citizen, who was born in the Soviet Union and worked for many years in Russia.
Shishkarev owns 51% of Delo, with state nuclear corporation Rosatom holding a 49% stake.
Shishkarev presented a plan to the government to negotiate the terminal’s purchase or its transfer to other management, according to the minutes of a March 28 meeting seen by Reuters.
Citing Russian Railways, the document showed that suspended coal deliveries to OTEKO’s terminal meant that 5.1 million metric tons of coal products were not exported through the Taman port in the first quarter.
OTEKO said it was negotiating with coal exporters and that progress had been made, with shipments now underway.
By Gleb Stolyarov, Reuters
